


Late Night Snack

by brionypoisoned



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Buddy Aurinko's spaceship of character development and growth, Multi, POV Peter Nureyev, Peter "dragged kicking and screaming into the found family trope" Nureyev, Peter Nureyev being cranky, Rita Appreciation (Penumbra Podcast), Rita is a Good Friend (Penumbra Podcast), TPP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:35:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21517570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brionypoisoned/pseuds/brionypoisoned
Summary: Set immediately before the beginning of Season 3. Peter Nureyev and Rita finally have a conversation, and he is not remotely prepared for it.
Relationships: Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel
Comments: 12
Kudos: 178





	Late Night Snack

**Author's Note:**

> I just really love Rita and Nureyev as characters and I have been dying for them to interact and so I wrote this.

Peter Nureyev, er, Ransom, crept with supernatural silence through the dimly lit interior hallways of Buddy Aurinko’s spaceship, like, well like a thief in the night if he was being perfectly honest. It was all terribly cliche, but what can one do? He was hungry. Peter had skipped dinner to avoid any unnecessary awkwardness with the detective, but his grumbling stomach would now not allow him any rest. And he needed rest, certainly, if he was going to survive the “Family Meeting” Buddy had planned for tomorrow.

With the trained discretion of a professional thief he slipped into the kitchens, noticing only too late that he was not alone.

“JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE HECK DO YA THINK YOU’RE DOING!?!?” The ear piercing tones of Steel’s secretary nearly knocked Peter backwards. He yelled, despite himself, at the sudden wall of sound which took him so off guard.

“Oh it’s you!” Rita snapped on the lights to the kitchen, revealing a messy table covered in some kind of unhealthily orange colored salmon snacks, crumbs, and a tiny computer streaming some kind of historical drama. From the looks of it the show was set in the Fascist Rennaissance, although the team of resistance fighters were intergalactic mermaids, which he couldn’t imagine was particularly historically accurate. “Mister Glass! Or, uh, Ransom, I guess I’m supposed to call you now, right? Or are you gonna change it again in ten minutes?”

“Erm… I will answer to whatever you wish to call me, Ms. Rita…” Peter schmoozed, a strategy which usually worked, and had in fact worked with Rita in the past. Not this time, though.

“Oh you can cut it out with that stuff right away, bucko. Rita ain’t no pushover. At least, not more than once. Besides you ain’t even that cute anyway, whatever the boss thinks.” 

Peter brushed off the mention of the boss as coolly as he could. Whatever Juno Steel thought of his appearance, the P.I. had made his decision, with complete clarity, several months ago.

“Pardon me if this is uncouth, but may I ask why you were sitting alone, in complete darkness, eating snacks in the kitchen?” He asked. 

“How do YOU watch your movies, huh? With all the lights on and with no food?” 

“I…” When she put it that way her behavior didn’t sound so odd. His heart still pounded from the surprise of finding her here, though. “I don’t watch many films, I’m afraid.” He admitted.

“You don’t…” Rita looked at him with an expression of horrified pity, like he had just told her that his whole family had died and he’d never heard the sound of a child’s laugh. Honestly, she probably wouldn’t have responded with as much emotion if he HAD told her his whole family was dead. “Yeesh, maybe you and the boss do have something in common. Well if you want you can finish this one with me. I’d start it over at the beginning but I just can’t stand to, there’s such a cliffhanger going on right now like you wouldn’t believe, that’s why I almost jumped out of my skin right now when you snuck in here, all in black like some kind of serial killer or something…”

She just went on. And on. It was almost miraculous. Peter imagined that Juno must have learned to cut her off at some point but, in contrast, he chose to stand there and try to let it all wash over him for as long as possible. 

Ten minutes later Rita was describing, in detail, just what it was about the mermaid Shellaira which gave her the creeps, when Peter’s stomach let out a loud rumble. 

“Was that you!?” She asked.

“I’m terribly sorry.” Peter’s cheeks flushed red. “You see, I haven’t had any dinner…” 

“CRIPES Mr. Ransom! don’t let me stop you! There’s leftover protein kits and a tuna brick cheese mushroom thing over in the icebox.”

Peter shuddered at the mention of tuna brick.

“I think I’ll help myself to a protein kit, if you don’t mind.” 

“Sure I don’t mind. You don’t like tuna brick either? Neither does the boss, he’s a real baby about it, If I’m being honest. All melodramatic gagging and stuff. He can be a real picky lady sometimes, let me tell ya.”

“I’m sure I wouldn’t know.” Peter said, pulling out a shiny wrapped bar which advertised over a trillion nutrients and was probably made out of solid fruit pulp and ancient plastic. 

“He was real wreck after you left last time.” Rita said, munching on a snack and twisting her neck around to keep her eye on him.

Peter bristled at the suggestion that HE was the one who left, but stopped himself before responding. Obviously Juno hadn’t told her about… that night. Peter sat down at the table, a full seat away from Rita. It didn't stop her from continuing to address him.

“I was sort of wondering,” Rita kept talking, still fast but slightly more subdued, “after the whole Kanagawa thing when you robbed us blind and left behind that note that the boss kept taking out of his pocket and smelling when he thought I wasn’t looking, did you… Did you have something to do with the…” Rita tapped her fingers nervously, with the kind of keystroke speed you might expect for when she was hacking a database. “Can you tell me about how he lost his eye? NO DON'T!" She shrieked, immediately holding up her hands to cut him off even though he had no intention of responding. She went on. 

"The boss’ll tell me when he’s ready. It’s just… GOD he left me the absolutely most nuts voicemail I’ve ever heard in my life, all about trust, and vulnerability, and yadda yadda yadda, and I kinda thought it might be about you and now YOU’RE here with a different name, and let me tell ya, Mr. Steel isn’t as P.O.’d at you as I thought he’d be, which makes me think that…”

“I didn’t make Juno lose his eye, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Oh NO I didn’t think you were the one who blew up his eye! Unless you got some kind of magic brain powers that can make you explode people’s eyes…” She looked him up and down, seriously considering.

“I…” Nureyev cleared his throat. “I am a man of many talents, but ‘magic brain powers,’ alas, are not included amongst them.”

“Good! No, I shouldn’t have even asked, the boss'll will tell me what happened when he’s ready. And you know what? It’ll probably be real soon because he’s doing so much better now.” 

“Better?” Nureyev paused after taking a large bite of his protein bar. Despite months of pretending that Juno Steel was just some messy and irrelevant private investigator on Mars, the news that Juno might be doing better filled him with conflicting emotions. These emotions were made all the more conflicting by how furious he was with himself for having any feelings about it at all. “Well, if he opens up to anyone, I am certain it will be you.” Nureyev pulled himself together enough to say. “And now, my dear Rita, I will bid you good night. I hope that your stream comes to a satisfactory ending and that the neo-fascist pirate guard gets eaten by the mermaid’s mecha-squid.”

“That’s real sweet of you to say, Mister Ransom.” Rita answered. “I hope we get to know each other a little better.” She gave him a look which took him a moment to comprehend.

“I… I really don’t have brain magic, Rita.” 

“Suuuuuure you don’t.” Rita waved him goodnight, through a suspicious squint.

Nureyev almost wobbled out of the kitchen, emotionally and physically exhausted. He felt like he’d been run over by a very talkative hovercycle. Thankfully, he was a little bit less hungry. As he made his way towards his room, a dark shuffling movement at the end of the hallway caught his eye. 

Detective Steel, hair messy, dressed in a loose fitting shirt and pajama pants, was trudging down the hallway, rubbing his remaining eye like a toddler at naptime. Nureyev froze, overwhelmed with how beautiful the man looked. 

“Somebody there?” Juno asked, blinking, trying to adjust his vision to the darkness. 

Nureyev did what he did best. What he had always done best. He disappeared into his room without a sound, without a trace. He stood behind his door, perfectly still, breathing in and out with intentional pacing. Usually, when his heart pounded this hard, it was because his life was on the line. This time, it felt altogether different.


End file.
